Charity during Ramadan means public safety, religion at odds

Source: Free Press

As Ramadan nears, Rabih Najdi, the manager at the Super Greenland Store in Dearborn, is preparing to be asked to give to charity — sometimes by the same people who told him the same story of misfortune the last time they asked for help.

One year, he said, a woman was begging for money with a photo of a boy in a foreign country who she said needed a kidney.

“I saw her 10 years later,” Najdi said. “She has the same picture in her hand. And I told her, ‘I mean, come on, we cannot do that. It’s not good for Ramadan and stuff.’ But, I don’t know if she’s a Muslim either. Some people, they try to abuse the situation.”

Charity is a tenet of the Islamic holy month, which this year for many Muslims will begin May 15 and end June 14.